Wednesday, February 21, 2007

If you live in or near Washington DC, you might want to consider attending a speech given there on Friday, February 23, by two prominent Vlaams Belang leaders, Filip Dewinter and Frank Vanhecke. Dewinter and Vanhecke are in Washington from February 20 to 23, with the aims of strengthening the ties between the American and the European Right, getting the VB known to its US counterparts and, last but not least, warn of the dangers of multiculturalism, radical Islam and mass immigration. While Dewinter and Vanhecke will attend several meetings, a.o. the one today, wednesday, at Grover Norquist's Center-Right Coalition Meeting, the most important event will be the speech given Friday evening before the Robert Taft Club, a think tank of traditionalists, conservatives and libertarians which holds a monthly meeting in the Washington, DC area.

Filip Dewinter, arguably the VB's best known strongman abroad, is not the Chairman of the VB itself. He is, a.o., VB fraction leader in the Flemish Parliament, the Flemish regional assembly. Keep in mind that Belgium is a federal state, with a federal government "above" the two regions, Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia. Both regions have their own "governments" and "parliaments". The VB is Flanders' biggest party, drawing about one quarter of the vote. Since Flanders has a bigger population than Wallonia, the VB is at the same time also Belgium's biggest party. Its name, Vlaams Belang, means "Flemish Interest" and highlights what is in fact the main aim of the party, that is to say Flemish Independence. Explaining this in itself important issue would require far too much space and time. Suffice to say that within the Belgian framework the Flemings have always been, even to this day, second rate citizens of some sort, as a provider of cheap labor power for early industrialized Wallonia in the nineteenth century and as a milk cow to keep the Wallonian semi-communist state afloat in the twentieth century. While I, as a Fleming, am fully aware of past and present injustices, personally I regret the independence stance because a divorce would ultimately cost Flanders much more than the 11.5 billion euros transferred every year to the south. A secession would be a very ugly divorce and create instability in the heart of the European Union. It would also very likely cause Brussels to lose its status as Capital of Europe, as well as the departure of countless international organizations, NATO on top. That said, I don't think it is that far yet, and the other very real issues the VB puts on the agenda are much more pressing. VB Chairman is actually Frank Vanhecke, who is also a MEP (Member of European Parliament). Under his guidance, the VB has shaken off its murky past and transformed itself into a decent, (relatively) business friendly conservative party which comes up for traditional western values and which firmly rejects the dogmatic belief in multiculturalism, forced upon Belgian citizens by the regime. A regime which by all means tries to kill the VB, even as we speak and write, but more about that later.

Crystal City Marriott is located above the Crystal City Metro, and is also less than a mile away from Ronald Reagan National Airport Washington. Admission is free, though donations are appreciated. Business attire is required. Please RSVP in advance to marcusepstein@gmail.com, but feel free to come if you do not RSVP.

Organizer and speechwriter for the two VB delegates' journey is Paul Beliën, the director of The Brussels Journal, one of Europes leading conservative websites. Mr. Beliën recently had an elaborate post on the subject. Mr. Beliën is Belgium's best known conservative journalist, and was spit out by the overwhelmingly leftist Belgian media landscape fifteen years ago after writing an op-ed in The WSJ the regime did not like. The irony is, that today, "that fascist from the Wall Street Journal" has become a major opinionmaker not only for the European, but indeed for the Western Right, while his leftist "colleagues" are still bickering and self-enjoying in their homemade incestuous leftozoid environment, "serving" a market of a mere 10.5 million people - of which, I gather, to their horror an increasingly bigger percentage is beginning to see them for them for what they are - obsolete, vile and utterly undemocratic crooks.

Recently, Mr. Beliën wrote the following column for The Washington Times. I hope the following, very telling exerpt may induce you to come to the Crystal City Marriott come Friday evening:

Be there, if you can. Europes Right and America's Right will meet. Brothers in arms. Dare I have the audacity of hoping this meeting will be the start of a grand new Rightwing partnership across the Atlantic? I dare.